MM stands for male/male: romance between two men, where the couple ends up together. MM romance is enormous and its corners barely resemble each other. A hockey rivalry and a Chinese cultivation epic sit under the same two letters, so it is hard to know where to begin.
Pick the world you already like reading about and start there. Every list below opens in full.
Right now
What is MM romance?
MM romance is romance between two men, written as genre romance, which carries one promise: the couple ends up together. Most of it is self-published or comes from romance presses, so it moves fast and very little of it reaches a bookshop.
You will also see it called M/M, mlm romance or gay romance. The Asian branches have their own names, danmei for Chinese work and BL for Japanese and Korean.
Reader’s guide
What to read it on
A phone works to start. If you end up reading a lot, here are the new e-readers compared by a romance reader, and the one I’d pick.
Read the guide
Which MM subgenre should I start with?
The one closest to what you already read. Contemporary and sports are the easiest doors if paranormal is not your thing, and the paranormal side is where the genre is most inventive.
MM sports romance
The biggest corner, hockey most of all. A locker room gives you rivalry, secrecy and a career worth risking.
MM dark romance
Ordered from the gentlest to the hardest, with content warnings on each, so you can stop exactly where you want to.
MM monster romance
The love interest is not human, and he does not quietly turn human by chapter three. Soul eaters, tentacles, too many eyes.
MM alien romance
The sci-fi side: abductions, language barriers and a few surprise pregnancies. Each book tells you what kind of alien you are getting.
Omegaverse
Alphas, omegas, heats and bonds. A made-up biology that pushes the couple together. The ABO basics and a glossary come after the books.
MM werewolf romance
The oldest corner of MM paranormal. A pack is a family with rules, so found family and the mate bond turn up constantly.
MM vampire romance
Sorted by pairing: a vampire with a human, another vampire, a werewolf or a witch.
MM ghost romance
From cosy hauntings to the ones that hurt, where the obstacle is that one of them is no longer entirely here.
MM pirate romance
Historical high seas and fantasy fleets, and the captain and prisoner dynamic the subgenre keeps returning to.
Danmei
Five to eight volumes per story, with cultivation sects, imperial politics and some of the slowest burns in MM.
Which tropes should I know?
A lot of MM readers choose a book by its trope, the kind of love story it tells, whatever the setting. The same tropes turn up in every subgenre above.
What to watch, and what to read next
These lists go both ways. Something to watch when you want a break from reading, and the books behind the adaptations for when the credits roll and you want more of it.
Where to start with MM romance: frequently asked questions
What does MM romance mean?
MM stands for male/male. It is romance between two men, written and read as genre romance, which means the couple ends up together. You will also see M/M, mlm romance, gay romance and BL used for overlapping things. BL usually refers to Japanese and Korean work, and danmei to Chinese work.
Which single book should I start with?
It depends on what you usually read. For a funny contemporary, Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, it is in my grumpy x sunshine list. For sports, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, the book behind the series, and here are her books in order. For gentle fantasy, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. If none of those sounds like you, pick the subgenre closest to what you already read in the list above.
Do I need a Kindle to read MM romance?
No. The free Kindle app works on a phone or a tablet, and that is how a lot of readers start. Most MM romance is self-published on Amazon and a large part of it is in Kindle Unlimited, so if you end up reading a lot, an e-reader is far more comfortable for long sessions. I compared the new models in my guide to which Kindle to buy.